TESTING IN PLACE IN N.J.

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, August 29, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Random drug testing, now being reconsidered for New York subway workers in the wake of Wednesday morning’s fatal derailment, is a fact of life for NJ Transit employees, who move most of the state’s bus and rail travelers, officials say.
Five passengers died and 259 people, including rescuers, were injured when a Manhattan IRT train derailed near the Union Square station at 14th Street shortly after midnight. A vial that later tested positive for crack cocaine was found in the motorman’s cab.
Most mass transit passengers in New Jersey come under federal drug-testing regulations that were enacted three years after the 1987 collision between Conrail locomotives and an Amtrak passenger train in which 16 people were killed and 175 injured. Those rules, enacted by the Federal Railroad Administration, mandate random drug testing for about 1,400 NJ Transit rail employees who hold safety-sensitive positions, said NJ Transit spokesman Jeff Lamm.
The New Jersey Supreme Court last year swept away a challenge of drug testing’s constitutionality by about 4,200 NJ Transit bus employees in similar jobs.
PATH train workers holding the safety-sensitive jobs are also subject to the federal agency’s regulations on periodic random testing, said John Kampfe, a spokesman for the Port Authority.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the New York subways, is not subject to the federal agency’s guidelines. Instead, it falls under the jurisdiction of the federal Urban Mass Transportation Authority, which has been seeking federal legislation that would allow it to set drug-testing guidelines.
New York City Mayor David Dinkins and MTA Chairman Peter Stangl both said drug-testing procedures may have to be reexamined and random drug testing might be instituted because of the derailment.
The testing would have to be negotiated with the transit unions, which have fought to cut back on the amount of testing.
This article contains material from The Associated Press.

Keywords: DRUG; TEST; NEW JERSEY; EMPLOYMENT; TRANSIT; RAILROAD; ACCIDENT; DEATH; VICTIM; NEW YORK CITY; ABUSE; ALCOHOL; BUS

SEARCH FOR LOST MAN ENDS AT A PAUPER’S GRAVE

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, August 8, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page A01

Six weeks after he was reported missing, Edward Gee Jr.’s family finally knows where he is: buried in a New York cemetery as “Edward Lee Jr.”
Mystery surrounds his last days. Gee, 32, died at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center on June 20. The hospital had his identification, sent his relatives a bill for $278 for emergency room services on July 7, and told them he was discharged June 27.
But Gee had died June 20, the day he had entered the hospital, and was buried on July 9 in a potter’s field in the city under the wrong name.
“Whatever person or entity is responsible for this shocking scenario must be held accountable for the outrage that the family has suffered and continues to suffer,” said William J. Ewing, a lawyer retained by the family.
The hospital’s spokeswoman was unaware of the situation. But she said, “There is no way we are sweeping this under the rug.
“Something happened, and we want to get to the bottom of this,” said Leslie Bernstein, the spokeswoman. “It is hospital policy to make every possible effort to notify next of kin when somebody comes into the hospital, certainly when somebody dies. . . . We regret that we were unable to notify next of kin in Mr. Gee’s case.”
Ewing said Gee had a wallet containing his driver’s license, Social Security card, student identification card, and Army veteran’s card when he was taken into the hospital.
Bernstein said Wednesday that she could not explain the mix-up until the hospital had a chance to investigate.
Gee was suffering from cardiac arrest brought on by an overdose of cocaine when he was brought in that day, Bernstein said. The cause of death was acute cocaine intoxication, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office.
Although the hospital did not notify the family of the death, it sent two medical services bills totaling $510, including $50 for “acetaminophen (Tylenol)” in the July 7 bill.
Asked how the hospital could tell the family Gee had been discharged June 27 when he had died seven days earlier, Bernstein replied: “I don’t understand that at all. This was on the bill. I don’t have an answer for it. I don’t know. The hospital has a regret here, at the least, and they are investigating exactly what went on.”
Complicating matters, Bernstein said, was the lack of a police report. It was unclear when the city’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) brought Gee into the hospital or where they brought him from, she said. In most cases, the only way to find that out would be the police report, she added. But an EMS spokeswoman said that information should be available from Gee’s hospital records.
After saying she would check the billing discrepancy and specifics on how Gee’s identification was mixed up, Bernstein later said she would no longer comment on the case because, “It’s a confidentiality issue.”
The mystery started coming unraveled when the family received the first bill from Columbia Presbyterian on July 23, he said.
Borakove said the New York Police Department was responsible under state law for verifying the identification of anyone for whom a hospital could not find the next of kin.
That is not necessarily the case, especially if the person was never in police custody, said Sgt. Peter Berry, a police spokesman. He said he did not know about the case and would need time to research whether the department ever came in contact with Gee.
The family referred all questions to Ewing.
“It is a sad commentary on what can happen in a metropolitan hospital. People do get lost,” Ewing said. “The family tried desperately through the police to find this man and couldn’t. So did the police.”
Pete DeLuise, a manager in the parts department at Englewood’s Town Motors, where Gee had worked for about a year, said he came to work Thursday, June 20.
“He didn’t show up for work that Friday,” DeLuise said. “He didn’t pick up his paycheck that day. Then his family called us about a week later to tell us he was missing.”
Englewood police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley said Gee’s sister Jimmie, his mother, and his father, Edward Sr., came to the Englewood Police Department June 28 to report that he was missing.
Tinsley declined to discuss the police investigation, however.
Bergen County Undersheriff Jay Alpert said the Sheriff’s Department’s missing-persons unit started working with Englewood on the case on July 11. Three days later, they received a report that someone saw Gee in the area of 138th Street in New York, Alpert said.
Investigators, armed with Gee’s fingerprint for comparison, were also sent to the New York City morgue about that time because several unidentified bodies that fit Gee’s general description were reported to be there, Alpert said.
But Gee had been buried July 9 at Hart Island, where unclaimed bodies are sent, under the misreading of his name after the medical examiner could not verify his identification. His family identified a photograph of Gee’s body Monday at the Medical Examiner’s Office in Manhattan.

Keywords: MISSING PERSON; DEATH; NEW YORK CITY

MURDER SUSPECT IS AT PINES; LINKED TO N.Y. ARTIST’S DEATH

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, August 3, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A03

A 23-year-old Bronx woman, under psychiatric care at Bergen Pines County Hospital following a disturbance in Palisades Park on Thursday, is awaiting extradition to New York City as a suspect in the murder of a 93-year-old woman, police said.
Michelle McWilliams pushed her way into amateur painter’s Mathilde Poggensee’s Bronx home looking for money to buy drugs, Detective Thomas Aiello said Friday.
A neighbor who looked in regularly on the award-winning artist, who was said to be losing her hearing and sight in recent years, found Poggensee on Wednesday night face down on the living room floor, her mouth gagged and her arms tied behind her back with an electrical cord, Aiello said.
She died of asphyxiation, caused by the gagging, and multiple rib injuries, according to a medical examiner’s report. Police think Poggensee was attacked Sunday or Monday.
Police do not know why or how McWilliams came to New Jersey. Palisades Park Police Capt. Frank Martini said borough officers picked up McWilliams, barefoot and unkempt, about 9 a.m. Thursday when they went to a Roff Avenue taxi stand where a disturbance had been reported. McWilliams was violent and appeared to be emotionally disturbed, he said.
“We did not know she was wanted in New York at that time,” Martini said.
It was discovered during routine questioning before she was committed for psychiatric evaluation that a pocketbook in McWilliams possession was one of the items taken from Poggensee’s home after it was ransacked, Aiello said.
McWilliams mother, who was informed by the hospital that her daughter was under their care, informed police of her whereabouts when 43rd Precinct detectives called her Thursday morning, Aiello added.
McWilliams faces charges of second-degree murder and robbery in New York, Aiello said.

Keywords: MURDER; NEW YORK CITY; PALISADES PARK; DRUG; PARAMUS; MENTAL; ART

TRUCKER IN FATAL ACCIDENT WAS SOBER

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, July 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A04

A tractor-trailer driver arrested Sunday in Teaneck after he left the scene of a Washington Heights accident in which two elderly sisters were killed was not drunk or under the influence of drugs at the time, officials said Thursday.
Blood and urine samples taken from Harold Heitzman at the time of his arrest came up negative in New Jersey State Police laboratory tests, said Terry Benczik, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Heitzman, who had a Texas driver’s license but lives in Peru, Ind., was released from the Bergen County Jail Monday on $1,000 bail. He was charged with driving while impaired, use of or under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance, eluding police, and going 10 miles above the 55-mph speed limit.
At least the two drug-related charges will likely be dropped, Benczik said.
Betty Rosen, 83, and Claire Muller, 86, both of Manhattan, were on their weekly outing to a restaurant at the time of the accident. Rosen and Muller, holding hands as they crossed the 179th Street-Broadway intersection about 4:15 p.m. Sunday, were struck and killed.
New York police said witnesses supported Heitzman’s statement to Port Authority police officers about 20 minutes after the accident that he was not aware he had hit the women. New York police did not charge Heitzman in the death of the two women because there was no evidence of a crime, said a spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Heitzman did not heed the lights and sirens of two Port Authority police officers attempting to stop him as he crossed the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey after the accident, police said. He stopped at the junction of Routes 95 and 80 in Teaneck.
A Sept. 10 court appearance had been scheduled for Heitzman in Fort Lee on the charges of impaired driving, eluding police, and speeding.
“Until I speak with my officers and review the case, I can’t make a decision whether the charges will be dropped,” said Matthew Fierro, municipal prosecutor. “I have to see what other charges the police officers have brought against him. He will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law once I review the charges.”
Teaneck Municipal Prosecutor Howard Solomon said he had not seen the complaint and could not comment on it. Heitzman is charged with use of or under the influence of a controlled dangerous substance in Teaneck.
“We’ll go forward with the complaint if it is provable,” Solomon said.

Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; DEATH; NEW YORK CITY; TEANECK; VICTIM

3 SOVIET EMIGRES END UP IN GOLF CRISIS

By Michael O. Allen and Patricia Alex, Record Staff Writers | Friday, July 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A01

Police say a trio of Soviet emigres caught sopping wet after diving for golf balls in Rockleigh Golf Course ponds early Thursday were carrying free enterprise a bit too far.
Yuri Slobodkin, 20, and Vyachestu Shablvusky, 20, both of Brooklyn, and Pavel Krants, 25, of Queens were charged with defiant trespass and theft of movable property about 2,500 golf balls.
They were arrested after Northvale police stopped them in a 1982 Oldsmobile on Haring Farm Lane at about 3:45 a.m. soaking wet and in possession of wet suits, scuba gear, and a duffel bag full of the duffers bounty.
Detective Jean Rothenberger of the Bergen County Police Department said the men dove for golf balls which fetch from 35 to 75 cents each for a living in New York, where they had legitimate contracts to do so.
“They just came out here to free-lance,” Rothenberger said.
The three were given summonses and released.

Keywords: RUSSIA; GOLF; LAKE; ROCKLEIGH; VIOLATION; NEW YORK CITY; THEFT; NORTHVALE

2 DEAD IN N.Y.C. HIT-AND-RUN; TRUCKER ARRESTED ON ROUTE 80

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Monday, July 15, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

A 34-year-old Indiana tractor-trailer driver was arrested in Teaneck on Sunday after he fled the scene of an accident in upper Manhattan in which two elderly sisters were struck and killed by a truck, police said.
The accident occurred about 4:16 p.m. at the intersection of 179th Street and Broadway, said Sgt. Tina Mohrmann, a New York City police spokeswoman.
“We had a tractor-trailer going westbound,” Morhmann said. “He struck two elderly women, both of whom died at the scene.”
Eyewitnesses told police that the women, who had come out of an A & P supermarket near the intersection, were dragged along the pavement several feet by a truck.
Police identified the women as sisters: Betty Rosen, 83, and Claire Muller, 86, both of Manhattan.
A police lieutenant at a bus station at the intersection notified Port Authority Police at the George Washington Bridge about the truck, and two officers on the bridge spotted it, said Port Authority spokeswoman Terry Benczik.
Port Authority Police Officers Dennis Higgins and Michael Bucholz stopped the truck about 4:35 p.m. at the junction of Routes 95 and 80 in Teaneck, Benczik said.
The suspect, identified as Harold J. Weitzman of Peru, Ind.,was charged with eluding police and driving under the influence of a controlled substance, Benczik said.
Additional charges are pending in New York.
Benczik said the suspect was being held at the Port Authority police lockup at the George Washington Bridge and would be transferred to the Bergen County Jail to await arraignment.
Forensic technicians were examining the truck to confirm it was the vehicle involved in the accident, police said.

Keywords: MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT; NEW YORK CITY; TEANECK; WOMAN; AGED; VIOLATION; DEATH; VICTIM

CRASH JAMS GWB TRAFFIC FOR 9 HOURS

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, June 6, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A05

A predawn accident on the westbound express lanes of Route 95 leading to the George Washington Bridge created massive traffic delays Wednesday.
The traffic jam was especially acute during the morning rush hour, as it took New Jersey-bound motorists as long as two hours to cross the bridge, said Catherine Bowman, the bridge’s operations supervisor.
The accident, on the upper level express lanes, involved an overturned garbage truck and two cars. It occurred about 2 a.m. near the Port Authority’s George Washington Bridge bus station, said Port Authority spokesman John Hughes. Details were not available.
Hughes said westbound traffic backed up as far as the New England section of the New York Thruway and was rerouted onto local streets and the Henry Hudson Parkway. The westbound lanes were closed for nine hours because of difficulty righting the truck, he said.
Bowman said the bridge’s lower level lanes were closed for construction at the time of the accident and were not opened until 6:30 a.m., adding to the congestion.
A special crane was used to right the truck about 11:30 a.m., and the lanes were reopened about noon, Hughes said. He said the cause of the accident had not been determined late Wednesday. Although the cars suffered extensive damage, no one was injured, he said.

Keywords: BRIDGE; NEW JERSEY; NEW YORK CITY; MOTOR VEHICLE; ACCIDENT

DRUG DEALER RIVALRY HELPS COPS TIP LEADS TO ARREST OF 2 MEN

Byline: By Michael O. Allen and John Cichowski, Record Staff Writers | Monday, April 29, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

When Harry Kittrell returned from New York City early Saturday allegedly with a stash of cocaine and crack vials a convoy of police were waiting for him and a companion as their car crossed the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey.
Police said Kittrell is the latest reputed narcotics dealer to be turned in by rivals in a growing pattern of double-crosses that have become common in local drug traffic wars.
“There’s no better way to eliminate your competition than call the cops and `rat them out,” reasoned one narcotics detective.
“It happens all the time,” said Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso. “One dealer cheats another out of a couple of thousand dollars, so he waits for the day he can turn him in. “
Hackensack police believe the anonymous call they received at 1 a.m. Saturday came from a rival of Kittrell’s. The caller told them the make and model of the car he would be driving, and the time he was expected back from the city with drugs.
About 15 unmarked police cars, including state troopers and Port Authority police, kept the 23-year-old Hackensack man under surveillance after his car entered Fort Lee and drove to Lodi, said Port Authority Police Officer Peter Heller and Hackensack police Capt. John Aletta.
As the car left one jurisdiction and entered another along Routes 80 and 17, various police departments took up the surveillance, said police. They finally pulled Kittrell’s car over in a parking lot off Essex Street in Lodi, said Heller.
Police said Kittrell, of 185 Pine St., Hackensack, and James Johnson, 28, address unknown, had chunks of rock cocaine hidden in a plastic sandwich bag and a supply ofcrack vials. They were charged with drug possession, possession with intent to distribute, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Kittrell was being held in lieu of $15,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail. He had been out on bail from a November arrest for possession of heroin in Hackensack. Johnson was being held in lieu of $7,500 bail.
Police said Johnson, whom police described as Kittrell’s accomplice, declined to respond at first when he was read his rights. But a few moments later, police said, he began spitting rock cocaine out of his mouth.
Law enforcement authorities said it is becoming more common for drug dealers to inform police about their competitors.
“Nobody announces to police that he’s a rival drug dealer, but the type of information you’re getting generally can only come from a few kinds of sources, and one of them is a competitor,” said Passaic County Prosecutor Ronald S. Fava. “Usually, it’s some kind of grievance that prompts the call, like a turf war or a money dispute.”
An urban narcotics officer, who asked not to be identified, said competitors and spurned lovers often are the best sources for drug information.
“Sometimes a competitor will ask the ex-girlfriend about the route, then he’ll call police with the information,” said the narcotics officer. “It’s the least violent way to kill off the competition.”

Keywords: POLICE; DRUG

DAD HELD AFTER COPS FIND CHILD IN MALL LOT

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, March 1, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Four Star B | NEWS | Page B01

A 39-year-old Bronx man was charged Thursday with endangering the life of a child after two Hackensack youth officers found his 16-month-old son alone and crying in a van parked at the Riverside Square Mall.
Goodwin Chow, also charged with disorderly conduct, was being held in the Bergen County Jail on $75,000 bail.
The toddler had been in the van for at least two hours when Sgt. Frank Lomia and Police Officer John Carroll found him at about 9:50 p.m. Wednesday, Hackensack Police Chief William C. Iurato said.
“When I took him out of the van, he appeared in general good health, but he was cold,” Lomia said. “His clothing was really poor, and his diapers hadn’t been changed in a while. “
The child was taken by ambulance to the Hackensack Medical Center, where he was treated before being released to the custody of the state Division of Youth and Family Services, police said.
A DYFS spokeswoman said she was prohibited by law from acknowledging any investigation that the agency might be involved in.
Lomia said the officers were on patrol when Carroll noticed the white 1973 Ford van bearing New York license plates and covered with graffiti.
“We checked it out because it looked so out of place sitting in front of the restaurant,” Lomia said. “Then, when we checked further, we found the boy. “
Raphie Gutierrez, a manager at Au Bon Pain restaurant, where Chow arrived about 8 p.m. to repair an oven, said the last time Chow came to work at the restaurant, about a month ago, he brought the boy in with him. The boy was awake and stayed with employees in the back of the restaurant, he said.
On Wednesday, Chow “was going back and forth [to the parking lot] every five minutes,” Gutierrez said. “We didn’t know why until later. “
The boy, wrapped in a grease-stained jacket and in the front passenger seat, began crying when Carroll and Lomia arrived at the van, Iurato said. Mall security officers, dispatched to look for the van’s owner in nearby businesses, arrived with Chow as the officers were about to smash in the window to get to the child, Iurato said. He said Chow became defensive and was uncooperative with the officers.
“He refused to open the van or give us the key. The key had to be forcibly taken from him,” Lomia said.
Chow told police that the boy has a mother but no other relative. Police were searching for her Thursday, Lomia said.

Keywords: NEW YORK CITY; BABY; HACKENSACK; MOTOR VEHICLE; ABUSE

DEADLY BRAND OF HEROIN CLAIMS 3 N.J. ADDICTS

By David Gibson and Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writers | Sunday, February 3, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A01

Two drug addicts in Paterson and one in Newark died Saturday after using deadly heroin from the Bronx that police say has killed six people in the tri-state area and hospitalized at least 100 others within hours of hitting the streets.
Authorities were unsure late Saturday if the deaths were caused by “hotshots” powerful doses of uncut heroin or if the narcotic was laced with some poisonous material.
New York City police cruised drug-infested areas Saturday announcing the danger over bullhorns and searched abandoned tenements, seeking to spread the warning to homeless addicts. Police in Hartford, Conn., site of one fatal overdose, did the same.
But Paterson and Newark officials said they had no similar plans.
“The word is pretty much out on the street,” said Paterson Police Chief Richard W. Munsey. “Our detectives went out early this morning. “
Paterson police sources said one arrest had been made in an ongoing investigation aimed at tracking down the source of the lethal heroin.
“We’re compiling a lot of information and watching a couple of places. Hopefully we’ll get lucky,” said one detective, who added that New York police were assisting on the case.
Paterson Mayor William J. Pascrell Jr. took a hard line on warning addicts, characterizing the loudspeaker idea as “ludicrous. “
“When you play with poison, you’re going to die with poison, one way or another,” said Pascrell. The mayor acknowledged his attitude may be viewed as harsh, but said it was for the addicts own good: “I hope this puts fear into the drug users. There’s a lesson to be learned from this. “
Lt. Dan Collins of the Newark police said no efforts were being made to notify drug users there of the danger.
“We don’t go around broadcasting,” said one Newark police officer who declined to give his name. “When we go to shooting galleries, we lock them up.”
Six men and a woman were taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Paterson on Saturday suffering from drug overdoses, said spokeswoman Barbara Hopp. Two men were pronounced dead on arrival, three patients were treated and released, and two were reported in stable condition, she said. Officials would not identify the victims.
Pascrell and Munsey said word-of-mouth warnings would likely be sufficient to scare off Paterson’s heroin users because the overdoses, which started occurring about 4 a.m. Saturday, were confined to a small section of the city. They declined to identify the area.
New York officials said the heroin in question was bought after 4 p.m. Friday near 138th Street and Brook Avenue in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. It was distributed quickly, they said, citing as evidence the death in Hartford.
Two fatalities were reported in New York, and at least 100 people have been hospitalized, including 21 overdose cases in Newark and four in Irvington. Hartford hospitals reported 33 overdoses.
New York Health Department officials said preliminary tests indicated the heroin was possibly tainted with methyl fentanyl, which can increase the potency of the drug by “a factor of 27. ” That overwhelms receptors in the brain, they said, with resulting coma or respiratory arrest. The condition can be treated if caught in time, they added.
In Paterson, Munsey said death from an overdose of that magnitude can occur in minutes. “They go into a type of seizure and don’t come out. They go comatose and die very quickly,” he said.
The chief added that the heroin used Saturday must have been extremely potent.
“These [victims] are mainliners,” Munsey said. “If they’re dying from shooting up, it’s got to be a good load. With big-time users, it takes an awful lot. “
The heroin was being sold under the brand name “Tango and Cash,” after the movie in which Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell portray police officers fighting powerful drug lords.
“The brand name is nothing but a stamp that they put on a glassine envelope,” said Victor M. Pedalino, special agent with the Newark office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “They come up with new ones as soon as the names become familiar. “
Pedalino said that about three years ago, particularly potent brands of heroin called “China White” and “P-Dope,” which stood for pure dope, surfaced in New Jersey, and that there was an increase of overdose death reported during that time. That heroin was 70 percent to 85 percent pure.
Renee Sacerdote, a drug counselor at Eva’s Halfway House in Paterson, said addicts scared by the heroin could rely on alcohol or pills to overcome withdrawal pains.
She said Eva’s beds are full and there is a 150-person waiting list for the shelter’s detoxification services, but she said local hospitals, a Main Street methadone clinic, and the Straight and Narrow rehabilitation program could accommodate addicts seeking treatment.
Authorities said the speed with which the heroin reached outlying cities in Connecticut and New Jersey was grim testimony to the efficiency of the narcotics network, which police constantly attempt to interrupt.
Local authorities have long recognized that the majority of Paterson’s illegal drug supply originates in New York, less than a half-hour away on Route 80, and Pascrell said the latest deaths highlight his city’s role as a casualty rather than a protagonist in the drug war.
“Here, we arrest nickel-and-dime dealers,” Pascrell said. “While they’re certainly dangerous, they never get the big guys who pull the strings out of New York.”
Local and federal drug enforcement experts agreed that the area has seen a recent growth in the use of heroin, most of which comes from Southeast Asia. Pedalino said the New Jersey office “has increased its heroin investigation probably by 30 or 40 percent in the past few years.”
New York police, who are coordinating the investigation, asked those with information about who sold the drug to call a confidential, 24-hour hot line: 1-(212) 583-0144.

Keywords: DRUG; ABUSE; PATERSON; NEWARK; NEW YORK CITY